Habitus

In News 

• Habitus was recently seen in the news .

About Habitus 

• The concept of Habitus was made popular by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in his book Outline of a Theory of Practice (1977). 
  • He used the concept to address the sociological conundrum between structure and agency 
  • He explained that habitus was shaped by structural position, but also generated action. 
  • According to him, when people exhibit agency they unconsciously refer to social structures, thus reflecting on and reproducing them. 
  • Individual actions are thus reflected by the socialisation and habitus of the individual.
• The concept of habitus was first known to be used by Aristotle, it was Pierre Bourdieu who transformed it into a vital concept in social theory. 
• The term habitus refers to a collective entity by and into which dominant social and cultural conditions of a society are established and reproduced.
  • What one considers, ‘natural’, ‘taboo’, ‘neutral’ and ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is constructed by one’s habitus. 
• It is a subjective and yet not an individual system of structures, concepts, schemes of perception, actions and norms that are internalised by individuals in the same group. 
• Habitus helps instil a sense of the world in individuals by attributing cultural value to material or immaterial objects. 
• Even at a very intimate level, habitus postulates specific properties. 

Source:TH